Whooves: Cyberpony
by Doctor Specter
Summary: Episode 5: The Doctor is stranded on a factory on the planet Clop with an old adversary, and must try to save the remaining ponies before they all meet a grisly fate.
1. Chapter 1

**Cyberpony**

The Doctor continued on his way to Celestia's castle to drop off the pictures he took while on the way to the moon, having wasted a huge amount of time with the Dream Lord fiasco. He looked through them, satisfied through his, and, surprisingly, Derpy's work. For somepony that can barely see, Derpy is a fantastic photographer. He could only hope that the Princess agreed, and hoped even more that Luna would be there. He could use a friend for the challenges that waited for him.

He walked past the guards, through the giant, fancy doors, and up a staircase, to find Princess Celestia waiting for him.

"Doctor!" she exclaimed, brightening everything behind her to make her statement more powerful. She was a big fan of theatrics, and trolling, but mostly theatrics.

"I got you the photos you sent me for," the Doctor said, covering his eyes from the strangely bright light Celestia cast, and then asked, "Is Luna around? I need to ask her something."

"No, sorry Doctor, but I have just sent her to look for you. She'll be back in a few days, if that helps."

The Doctor looked very disappointed, but wore a smile as he said, "Actually, I have to take care of something, but thank you for reminding me about that."

Princess Celestia was a bit confused, but understood that the Doctor was an alien time traveller, and that these sorts of things happen.

"You'd better take care of that call, Doctor."

He was very surprised at that comment, and inquired, "What call?"

"The call from Clop, Doctor, they seem to have an issue which could use your..." Celestia paused for a moment while she thought of the word, and finished with, "Expertise."

"Oh, that call! How did you know about that?"

"I did go in your TARDIS, you know."

"But I just got that call."

"They must've called more than once, Doctor, which would tell me that time is of the essence."

He was very suspicious of Princess Celestia, but forgot about it, and said, "Time traveller, remember? Time is hardly of the essence for me."

"Everybody's time runs out eventually, Doctor, and they need you now."

He understood that he was not welcome for much longer, and took a bow, said goodbye, and headed for the TARDIS, remembering the call.

The Doctor had been putting off this call for quite a while.

He received it in the ride to the Moon with Derpy, a distress signal from an alien world in the future. A lone Cyberpony with a Cyber Conversion Unit was inside of a building, so of course the government of Clop sealed the building, with dozens of ponies inside. The Doctor put these things together and saw danger, lots and lots of danger. Too much danger, in fact, to bring Derpy with him, so he had planned to not go on this call for a very, very long time, but time has a way of catching up with the Doctor.

The time was now.

He set the TARDIS's coordinates for the planet Clop, thousands of light-decades away from Equestria, a few hundred years in the future. He had to make absolutely sure that he would not find out anything important about Ponyville's future, relative to his perspective. Even the Doctor loves a good surprise.

The TARDIS's turbulence in space-time was a bit greater than usual, which the Doctor understood. He could sense, in a way he could hardly explain, that this event was a fixed point in time. He couldn't change the outcome. And he knew that nopony exited that building alive.

At least, not through the door, and when you knew the Doctor, you hardly need doors.

The TARDIS landed, and through the screen showing what was happening outside, there was no visible light. The Doctor knew better than to go into a dangerous situation, one that he knew ended badly, without being able to see a thing. He grabbed a few head-mounted torches, and walked out of the TARDIS, into the building that the Cyberpony controlled.

He could hardly contain his excitement, it was nearly pouring out of his ears, onto the industrial floor. Suddenly, it came into his mind what, exactly, this building was for.

He pulled out his sonic screwdriver as he galloped over to a computer that looked like it might have been unused for several years, and smelled like it, too. With a push of a button, and a bit of adjustment to the sound waves flowing from his sonic screwdriver, it burst to life, and the start-up sound known the multiverse over played from an invisible speaker.

He used the sonic to get around everything after that. A bit of nostalgia is okay, but wasting a lot of time when his life is in danger was a bit beyond what the Doctor was willing to do at the time.

He heard a sound that wasn't made by any machine he had intended to activate. He quickly made sure he didn't use the sonic on anything he didn't intend to use it on, and knew immediately that it wasn't his fault.

Then he saw the wallpaper for the computer, and knew what this building was for. It was a steel factory. That was the last thing the Doctor needed at that point, especially because there was a pony behind him, one that may or may not be a literal murderous machine.

He turned around, pointing his sonic menacingly at the pony, only to realize that it was not a Cyberpony.

She screamed, just a little bit, and jumped a little bit more than she screamed.

"Oh, sorry ma'am, I thought you were a Cyberpony," the Doctor said, pocketing his sonic screwdriver. Needless to say, he was very embarrassed.

"Who are you?" the other pony screamed, still startled from the Doctor's presence.

"Oh, me? I'm the Doctor, but the kids call me Doctor Whooves. Whichever you like is fine."

"How did you get here? We're under lockdown, after the Cyberpony invasion, nopony should be able to get in."

"You ponies called ME! So, what is your name?"

"I'm Amethyst Jewel."

"Well, Mrs. Jewel, I'm here to save your life, so listen up and you might get out of this place alive."

Amethyst wasn't sure if she should listen or call security, although, of course, security got out of the building before they sealed it from the outside world.

"Is there anypony else here? We're going to need to round up everypony and get them to my ship," the Doctor said.

"The only other pony I've seen is Lavender Berry."

"I'll just do a scan," the Doctor said as he reached over to the computer to do a check for living creatures.

After a moment, he said, "8! That means that there are 5 other ponies, and the Cyberpony."

"How did you do that? Our computers aren't designed for that kind of scan."

"I'm the Doctor, I can do these sorts of things," the Doctor confidently stated, "And when I'm around, everypony lives, so let's get moving!"

The Doctor dashed off in the direction of a doorway, and amazed Amethyst with his confidence. She wondered if that was a goal, or a fact, or an opinion. She could only hope that it was a fact.

She galloped after him, in hopes of everypony getting out of the building, somehow, but knew that the odds of that were so low, that it would be easier to try to destroy the Cyberpony with twigs and pebbles.

The Doctor made a sharp turn down a hallway, looking everywhere for signs of another pony, or of the Cyber Conversion Unit, so he could either save them from it, or destroy it. The lights were coming back on, meaning that the Cyberpony either just got a new recruit or was recharged enough to try to. The Doctor ran as fast as he could once he noticed this.

He heard the blast before he was even close to its location.

He tried in vain to run faster, but knew that nothing could save whatever was shot by the Cyberpony. He could only hope that the Cyberpony didn't try to still convert the body, because the last thing he needed that day was a combination of a zombie pony and a Cyberpony.

He ran into the corridor to see a broken body of a pony, one he could only assume was Lavender Berry.

Amethyst caught up with the Doctor, and saw the body. Gasping, she said, "Oh no! That's Lavender!"

The Doctor had really, really wished he was wrong.

"Come on, Amethyst, we need to hurry, before somepony else dies."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to seal the corridor leading to Lavender Berry's body, out of respect for the pony that he never had the privilege of meeting. Or, rather, meeting while they were both still alive.

Amethyst wiped away a tear, not able to handle the stress of her current situation whatsoever, not with her best friend dead.

Then, she heard it, the sound of perfectly timed and calculated walking. She'd lived around robots for her entire life, but she'd never heard something quite so robotic. She looked over to the Doctor, and saw his eyes grow more wide than she'd thought possible. The whole time she'd been around him, there'd been a crazy, confident look on his face. Now, there was nothing but survival, and animalistic fear, the fight or flight response freezing his body from any sort of plan he could create.

The Doctor snapped out of his stupor of amazement and horror, and whispered lightly to Amethyst, "Listen to me, Amethyst; there are only a few rules for this type of situation. First, do not run, running never helps, and you'll just trip over something if you do. Second, don't go up any stairs, you'll just box yourself into your own coffin, so to speak. Fourth, no, wait…Third, don't go into anyplace that isn't well lit, I can't guarantee that there is only the one Cyberpony. Four, don't go anywhere alone, that's just asking for trouble. Understand me?"

Amethyst broke at least 3 of the rules at the same time, having run away from the Doctor around the second rule.

The Doctor was amazed by the nearly natural response in each and every creature in the universe to not only never listen to him, but to go against his knowledge in an attempt to simultaneously go against all of their instincts for survival.

If he had time to facehoof, he would have then.

But he didn't have time; the Cyberpony was far too close behind him to do something as useless as a facehoof. He had to run, right then, or he would die. Cyberponies aren't able to convert a Time Pony to become one of the Cyber Legion, but they certainly weren't about to let their enemy get away.

Pacing himself only a small bit faster than the Cyberpony, an easy feat due to its extreme calculation of speed, he headed in the direction of Amethyst, knowing that everypony eventually breaks all the rules of being in a deadly situation with an insane killer, so he knew, also, that up the stairwell in the dark is where the surviving ponies are.

From the sounds of screaming, yet another rule that really shouldn't be have to be told, he knew he was right, and headed up the stairs calmly, knowing that emotion in these situations only makes it worse for the pony trying to make it out alive.

With the Cyberpony out of sight, the Doctor dash up the stairs, making sure to control his emotional response to being hunted by one of the most fearsome creatures he's ever dealt with, and the high likelihood that up there, with Amethyst Jewel and whoever else may have survived, was a Cyber Conversion Unit, and that only danger awaited him. He regretted not bringing his brainy specs, but something told him that looking smart was the least of his problems at the moment. Still, a bit of a boost to his sight would be a great advantage in this situation, even if, following the clichés, they would be broken by his own stupidity, crippling him at a critical moment.

The Doctor really needed to stop watching horror movies; it was affecting his ability to get away from danger. However hard he may try to convince himself, and everypony else, that it was helping him, he knew that his instincts are more powerful than anything a badly made movie designed to make ponies scream may make him think.

He heard another scream, alerting him to the other ponies' location, but also likely alerting the Cyberpony to their location, as well. He whispered a curse to himself, a very old and very filly unfriendly curse, and dashed up the remaining stairs. The staircase seemed to stretch on forever, the darkness hiding the top from the Doctor.

He reached the top of the stairs, and looked across the dark room for an exit, casting away his superstition about going up staircases while in danger. Surprising himself, he found the exit, and bolted through the doorway, to find Amethyst and another pony.

"Amethyst, we must hurry, the Cyberpony is very close," the Doctor said, his breath intensely drawn in between each phrase, building up his desperate sentence.

"We can't! I just pulled Orange Fist out of a horrible machine, and that's the only thing down that hallway thing!" Amethyst said, obviously having been the one who screamed both times.

The Doctor used all of his will to avoid mentioning that Orange Fist sounded like a terrible superhero, and barely managed to say, "We have to get out of here, now, or we're all about to end up in that machine."

He then lifted Orange Fist up, and carried him down the stairs, hoping desperately that he could get away from the Cyberpony with Orange Fist and Amethyst still alive.

"YOU. SHALL. BE. CONVERTED," the Cyberpony said in a monotone voice, each word spoken or, better described, projected, as an individual statement, with a long pause between each. Its voice was asexual, too deep to be female, but too soft to be male.

The Doctor picked up in speed considerably after hearing that, before noticing, in pure and utter shock, that Amethyst Jewel was no longer behind him.

"Orange Fist, don't let yourself be caught, okay? I'll be right back, need to save Amethyst," the Doctor said, dropping Orange to the ground, and running back up the stairs, back to where he knew the Cyber Conversion Unit was. Then, he heard it. Or, rather, didn't hear it. There was no loud sound of the Cyberpony walking, no pounding on the industrial floor of the building. It was either at the converter, or too far away to be heard, both of which were very, very bad.

The Doctor ran as quickly as he could, forgetting his rule about never running with emotion in that situation. He painfully fell to the floor, and rolled down the staircase in agony, beginning to hear the screams of Amethyst Jewel as she was being turned into a Cyberpony.

Breathing hard, and concentrating on his mission, he ran back up the stairs, through the pain of what could be called an epic fail, and galloped across the room, looking for the Cyber Conversion Unit.

He gasped in equal parts fear and sadness as he saw that he was too late, and Amethyst Jewel was a pony no longer.

She was a Cyberpony, stripped of emotions, and turned into a killing machine, bent on conquering the universe, one living creature at a time.

Only, she was incomplete, the conversion still occurring. He had to choose between two horrible options: Use his sonic screwdriver to deactivate the machine, which would buy him some time to rescue the remaining ponies, but kill Amethyst, or let it finish, leaving him stuck with 2 Cyberponies and less of a chance to win, but allowing Amethyst to, in a way, survive. The completed Cyberpony stomping in his direction didn't help his indecision, either.

The Doctor felt worse than he did when he had sent away all of the Time Ponies, a sort time ago, but knew what he had to do.

He tearfully lifted up his sonic screwdriver, and with a high-pitched sound, deactivated the Cyber Conversion Unit. If he was only a bit faster, Amethyst would have been alive.

"Sorry, Cyberpony, but there's no mercy to anypony that messes with my friends," the Doctor bitterly said, as he used his sonic screwdriver to temporarily deactivate the Cyberpony, giving him even more time to get Orange Fist to safety, and to find the other ponies.

On the way out, he locked the door behind him, thanking the universe for not making the door be wooden.

Sadly clopping down the stairs, he considered if he had even helped with his interference, or if he only made things worse. He threw away the thought, deciding that only a few ponies safe were better than no ponies safe, and picked up Orange Fist.

"What happened to Amethyst?" Orange asked as he regained consciousness.

"Same thing that happened to you, only she wasn't as lucky," the Doctor sadly informed him.

"Oh…" Orange said. If he was able to move his front legs to wipe away his tears, he would have. He was too crushed to tell the Doctor that Amethyst had, before her untimely demise, been his fiancé. Orange wondered just how lucky he was to have survived that terrible machine alive, but not to have done so with her.

"I'm sorry to ask, Orange, but do you have any idea where all the other ponies might be?" the Doctor asked.

"You might try going down those stairs, the ones with the bright lights, in the right corridor," Orange said, badly masking his broken heart.

"Of course that's where they'd be," the Doctor said. He then asked, "Can you walk? I'm sorry to ask, but, I'm recently regenerated, and…You're not the lightest pony."

"Oh, yeah, I think I can," Orange said, climbing off of the Doctor's back, and wobbly stood up.

"Thank you."

"Can I ask you something? Well, before I can ask, I 'll also have to ask: what's your name?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor, do you have any family here?"

"No."

"Do you have any family at all?"

"Not anymore."

Orange Fist stared tearfully at the ground, and said, "Me, too."

The Doctor wanted desperately to say he was sorry, but he knew that it would have been completely useless.

"I'm sorry," he said anyway.

"Thank you, Doctor."

They walked down the stairs to the oddly well-lit room as they heard the pounding of the now awoken Cyberpony pounding on the locked doors. They had little time before they were completely doomed.

The Doctor just had to remember how to get back to the TARDIS, and luckily for him, the Silence had not been following him that day. He needed something to be lucky for.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Monochrome Crash, Dah Bomb, and Black Charge were the names of the other ponies, as the Doctor found out quickly after entering the room. He hadn't even asked, instead, everypony in the room blurted out each other's names in the middle of nervous questions and more nervous comforting answers. Feeling a bit awkward, he introduced himself and Orange Fist, and discovered that they knew Orange. He had the sudden feeling that the only ponies in this building had to be coworkers, so he had no need to introduce anypony. Then, he sadly remembered that there were no longer any more ponies to uselessly introduce.

Unfortunately, in the confusion, somepony pressed a button, a very important button. A button which, when pressed, made every door and window deadlock sealed.

The Doctor gave Dah Bomb an extremely angry look, and asked, "Dah, was that the deadlock button?"

Dah gave an apologetic nod.

"You shouldn't have done that…" the Doctor said.

"But, Doctor, can't you open any door with your screwdriver thing?"

"Not deadlocked doors," the Doctor said, frustrated, and let out a sigh.

A few minutes passed in complete and utter awkward silence, before eventually the Doctor said, in a pure and perfect impression of a young filly, "I'm bored!"

Everypony else in the room stared at him, and eventually laughed. Either the tension or the ridiculousness of the Doctor, or both, made what would've been a rather boring moment incredibly hilarious, for them, at least.

"So, what do you guys want to talk about? We're going to be locked in here for at least 15 minutes," Monochrome Crash said.

Black Charge was obviously worried. The ponies whose names had colors in them were always the first ones to be killed off by the monster in horror movies, and this was much too similar to horror movies for him to be comfortable.

The Doctor noticed Black Charge's face, and then saw Orange Fist's, both of which were looks of horror. He suggested that they talk about scary stories, because it would be fun. The Doctor didn't mention, however, that it was a personal area of expertise.

Nopony had any ideas of what to talk about, so the Doctor mentioned a picture he once saw of a picture of a dog with sharpened pony teeth, which was said to visit ponies in their dreams if they didn't spread its story. The Doctor accepted the challenge, and didn't tell a soul about it for 300 years, and wasn't visited in any dreams by the scary dog, thus disproving the myth. Unfortunately, the first ponies he told were right in front of him, meaning he'd have to tell his story again to get the word across, unless they had Ponynet connections at home.

Everypony understood what they were supposed to discuss afterwards. They did, of course, have Ponynet connections, and spent hours and hours using it to read creepy stories, some of them great, some of them terrible. Some were hilarious, and some were terrifying. But they were all known amongst everypony in the room, so it was safe to talk about them.

Some of them had even been involved in the stories themselves.

"When I was a little filly, and the sun was going down, I would watch this cool show about pirates. The weird thing, though, was that my mom swore, day and night, that the whole time, I was just watching static. Years later, I went on this website, and a bunch of ponies saw it, and we all realized that it wasn't real. I wish I could remember the name of that show," Monochrome Crash revealed, bringing them all the realization that the story they had read was really a forum topic, and not just written like one, unless Monochrome Crash wrote it himself.

"This is creepier than that video on the Ponynet that had the blank stare and the drilling sounds," Dah Bomb said.

Everypony looked confused, until Dah Bomb said that he was talking about the video that was only a few seconds long, but everypony claimed had a full version, one that was removed from MareTube due to rights violations and gore.

"I heard that they tore out their eyes and sent them to the ponies that ran the netsite, too," the Doctor said, further revealing his massive knowledge of the art of scary Ponynet stories. Orange Fist wondered if the Doctor wrote it in his free time, but the time travelling aspect of his life likely prevented a steady Ponynet connection. Still, it seemed far too likely that he knew so much about it because he was a part of its creation.

"Speaking of creepy videos, anypony here see the one of that old black and white cartoon, where the main character is just walking for a few minutes, then it turns black, and then it comes back with the loud screaming, and he's still walking, but it's all distorted and weird," the Doctor said.

Several faces in the room assumed a look between nostalgia and terror.

The Doctor smiled, and said, "It wasn't authentic, I can tell you that much."

Orange Fist couldn't tell if he made it, or if he was there when it was made. The hard part in figuring out which it was stemmed from the simple fact that the Doctor could, potentially, be anywhere, and anytime that anywhere existed.

They discussed many stories, one of which had a hunter who wandered into a cabin in the woods that was filled with creepy paintings of horrible, angry faces, and when he woke up in the morning, it was revealed that the cabin was actually filled with windows.

They then talked about the song from the first Ponymon game, one that many ponies on the 'net claimed brought fillies to kill themselves, out of fear for the music, or the creepiness of the situation it was played in, or even the tones used in the song. This theory gained a lot of credibility when they remade the game, and the song was completely redone. Needless to say, the Doctor disagreed with this idea, mostly because he played that game for a literally immeasurable amount of time, and he was still alive. Of course, as many of his enemies would plead, the Doctor was virtually unkillable. Even when they did kill him, he just came back with a different face.

Then they quickly talked about a whole bunch of stories, discussing their endings and storylines. One of them was about a pony that locked himself up in his apartment complex, and went insane with paranoia, and discovered in the end that he was right about his theory the entire time.

Another one they talked about involved an experiment with sleep that a government did on prisoners of war. Eventually, they all went insane, and no amount of sedation could make them sleep. They tried to kill the ponies out of pity, but nothing worked, which drove the scientists performing the experiments insane. Eventually, the military raided the base, killing everypony inside.

The Doctor told his own version of the ending.

"Well, everypony died, that part's right, but the rest is way off," he said, deciding not to explain the rest.

They all looked at him, with pure desire oozing from their stares, until he explained what really happened there, apparently having been there. They clapped afterwards, very approving of his storytelling skills, despite the gruesome ending of the story.

"Oh, that's nothing. Have any of you heard of Ponybius? I played it," Orange Fist said, having been silent the entire time, out of grief.

The Doctor had heard a lot of it. In fact, he had helped code it, but he didn't want to try to upstage Orange.

"Um, this is weird, considering us talking about scary stuff from the Ponynet, but, I'm pretty sure I'm looking at Slenderpony right now," Monochrome Crash said.

"Oh Celestia, not Slenderpony…" the Doctor said, very annoyed, but threatened at what he knew seeing Slenderpony meant.

"No, really Doctor, I'm looking at Slenderpony."

"So am I," Black Charge said, terrified.

"I believe you, but that isn't Slenderpony. That's a Silent, and you won't remember it in just a moment."

They both asked "Huh?" when they looked back at him, having completely forgotten about their Slenderpony.

The Doctor had looked at it, as well, and immediately asked, "Who was phone?" causing the room to burst into laughter again, approving again of the Doctor's sense of humor.

"So, Doctor, when that door opens, how are we getting out of here?" Dah Bomb asked casually, although still very serious.

"I have a time machine. Well…It's a time and space machine, I guess you could say. As long as we get there before the Cyberpony gets to us, we'll be fine," the Doctor said.

"Speaking of the door opening…" Black Charge said, looking at the door as it began to creak open.

The time had come. The fun and games were over. It was time to get back to the TARDIS and save these ponies lives for the Doctor, and this being a fixed point in time, there were no second chances.

The door opened, which meant that the door also opened for the Cyberpony. The Doctor motioned for everypony behind him to move, and ran across the corridor to the TARDIS.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The Cyberpony mechanically stomped down the hallway on the floor above the Doctor and his new friends, precisely heading towards the staircase. If it hadn't been stripped of emotions during the cyber conversion process, it would be filled with hatred toward the Doctor, for repeatedly preventing it from making its army grow, and then locking it in that room, alone. Its only purpose on the industrialized planet of Clop, and by extension, its only purpose in this massive building, was to use to materials given to it by the masses of factory workers, and craft the Cyber Legion a new army from Clop's inhabitants. But the Doctor's efforts prevented it from even converting one pony.

This was its chance to change that. Besides, not even deadlocked doors could hold back a Cyberpony forever. It was only a matter of time before the Cyber Legion had a few hundred thousand more recruits, assuming that there wouldn't be any interplanetary military action. If there was, the converted Cyberponies could easily fend them off, and convert them, as well. All roads led to success. If the Cyberpony had been designed to smile, it would have.

The Doctor had a strange sense of Déjà vu, and attributed it to vague memories of an encounter with a Silent whilst geeking out with his new friends about creepy Ponynet stories. He casted away these thoughts, because he was in the middle of what may have been the most difficult part of this mission of his yet: getting everypony out alive, while managing to destroy the Cyber Conversion Unit and the Cyberpony, before the muffins that were still in the TARDIS got hard. He rather liked the one he did get to have with Derpy, and hoped to impress her with their freshness when he appeared again a week after dropping her off. But, first, large-scale lifesaving was needed.

The sound of the group's desperate gallops were overshadowed by the cold and calculated pounding of the Cyberpony, closer to them now than ever before. Orange Fist felt rage and hatred boil up inside of him; if he hadn't been in the front of the line of ponies, he would've turned around and kicked some cybernetic flank. Even if he had had the opportunity, the chances he would've succeeded were very low, considering that part of the Cyberpony conversion process involved combat training.

The Doctor remembered this tidbit of information at precisely the perfect moment. If his hunch was right, which it was, on occasion, Orange Fist would be prepared enough to hold off the Cyberpony for just a moment while he herded the others into the TARDIS, and still have enough time to be saved, himself. If he was right, then he'd also have the time to destroy the Cyber Conversion Unit, and deactivate the Cyberpony, all before the muffins got stale.

"Run faster! We need to get to the TARDIS right now!" the Doctor yelled, knowing he'd need to be in very close range to be able to make his plan work.

Somehow, his companions managed to run faster, building up the energy to pass the Doctor himself. Not even two hearts fuelling his centuries-old muscles could defeat a group of young ponies in fear, the Doctor thought. In just a moment, they would be safe in the TARDIS, and he would be turning off the machine upstairs that cost him a friend.

The TARDIS was right in front of them now, the deep blue of its eternal disguise hiding the complex time machine within. The Doctor didn't have time to explain that it was bigger on the inside, and his pony friends were starved of the time to point this out. They rushed into the TARDIS too quickly for the Doctor to ask Orange Fist to help him hold off the Cyberpony's attacks, meaning he'd need a different plan.

"Anypony here got any ideas of how to stop this thing?" the Doctor asked, breathing heavily in between syllables.

"Well, they don't call me Dah Bomb for nothing!" Dah Bomb exclaimed.

The Doctor was very surprised at this, thinking maybe that Dah Bomb just so happened to be "dah bomb" at making escape plans, and asked if that was the meaning of his name.

"Nope! I'm the demolition expert at Iron Pony Company!" Dah Bomb said, pulling out one of his wonderful explosive creations from seemingly nowhere.

"Dah Bomb…You will never cease to amaze," Monochrome Crash said.

The Doctor nodded in agreement, and asked Black Charge to take the explosive and arm it, explaining his extreme stance against physical violence.

"Oh, yes, of course," Black Charge said, knowing the legends of the Doctor, which made him just as silent as the fear of the situation did earlier. He took the bomb, pressed a small button, and saw the countdown timer had only 30 seconds on it. He threw the bomb out of the TARDIS's doors, yelling for the Doctor to get the TARDIS out of there immediately, knowing Dah Bomb's handy work far too well. If that bomb didn't take out the building entirely, it would, at least, decimate the floor it was on, and maybe the first couple of floors below and above it.

The Cyberpony saw the bomb roll towards it, and it took it a moment to realize what the device was, and what the numbers meant.

It barely had time to utter a robotic curse at the Doctor's disappearing TARDIS before it was nothing but dust.

The Doctor, Orange Fist, Monochrome Crash, Black Charge, and Dah Bomb were all relieved to have survived the ordeal, the Doctor especially, considering that he just majorly changed history by allowing them to live. He walked over to his coat rack, and reached into his former incarnation's favorite coat, and pulled out a newspaper speaking of the Iron Pony Company's headquarters' destruction. Instead of saying no survivors, it now said that there were 3, with a fourth under investigation for his destruction of the building, a matter the Doctor would have to deal with later, all of which were commended for their heroic efforts. He smiled, knowing that despite the damage he could've caused, that even time itself could change for the better. Placing the newspaper carefully back into his old coat pocket, he walked back over to his friends, and asked them where they wished to be dropped off.

"Anywhere for me, Doctor," Orange Fist said.

"My home was Iron Pony's headquarters, sir," Dah Bomb revealed, a bit saddened by his employer's destruction, however pleased he might have been that it was by his own hands. Once he told the reporters his story of how he saved the day, his request for a raise wouldn't seem like such a ridiculous request, especially because he was not only the head miner, but the CEO's son.

"Where ever these two crazy ponies are headed would be great, Doctor," Monochrome Crash said, his ancestry dating back to Rainbow Dash, the representative of the Element of Loyalty, making him heading to his actual home far too unreasonable for him to attempt. Even his name was a reference to her, even though he wasn't a Pegasus, or even monochrome, and that the Crash part of his name was actually referring to a rude nickname she'd attained. Regardless, he was proud to be related to such a cool pony. He felt, at least, a solid 1 fifth more awesome for it.

"Same here, Doctor," Black Charge said, hoping to find friends in the 3 other survivors of the crazy events of the past few hours. He was a new guy at work, but now he was the pony who helped save everypony's life, even the Doctor's.

"Well then, how about the CEO's office, 20 minutes from when I picked you up? I think you colts have quite the story to tell…" the Doctor said.

It sounded very good to them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The Doctor dropped everypony off at Iron Pony Company's primary office building. He informed them that they should emphasize that there was a Cyberpony and a Cyber Conversion Unit in the building when Dah Bomb blew it up, which the Doctor knew would be under investigation. Once he had a bit more free time, he would ensure that Dah Bomb would be completely safe from the law, by finding the remaining pieces of evidence in Dah Bomb's favor. Of course, the testimony of all the other surviving employees certainly didn't hurt, and Dah Bomb being the CEO's son was also in his favor.

He was very worried by the Silence's appearance, especially in a locked room with 4 other ponies in it. How could it have entered without tearing apart the room, or not have been noticed for nearly 20 minutes? The Silence was very powerful, the Doctor realized. They must be everywhere across the universe to be able to follow him like this, or in possession of machine like the TARDIS. He threw away this idea, knowing that the secrets of growing a TARDIS were lost during the Time War.

"Unless there are still seeds in Gallopfrey…" the Doctor muttered to himself, cataloging the information for a time when he had a better opportunity to use it. He'd been honing this skill for several years, beginning when the computer in the TARDIS started to act up. The computer still worked, but he'd trained himself to hold this information for, potentially, years. That reminded him of his next mission, this one having been waiting since he cast away the Time Ponies, following their attempted destruction of the universe.

An old enemy awaited him in Ponyville, an enemy he'd dealt with many times before, but it had never been easy.

Before he could deal with that, he had to pick up Derpy, because he knew that his nemesis would go after her if she wasn't protected. Then again, his nemesis would likely come after her, even if she was in the Doctor's protection.

He landed the TARDIS in Ponyville, a few days after when he dropped Derpy off, a few days from her perspective, at least.

He galloped out of the TARDIS, a bag of muffins in his mouth, hiding the crazed smile on his face. The one major advantage of time travel is, of course, the immense capacity he had for procrastination. So what if his arch enemy was coming to wreak havoc in his friend's home town? That might just be a few centuries away for the Doctor! Or, if he wanted, only moments awaited their epic battle.

The Doctor had no intention of immediately dealing with this immediate issue; he wanted to have fun. Fun was something that the Doctor valued immensely; it was almost a currency in his mind. It wasn't always that way for him, in fact, quite recently it was an expense he simply couldn't make much time for. Now, however, every moment he lived, every experience he had, every single breath he took, he awaited the next adventure that ended in laughs. Before, he would've made everything tense in the situation he was just in, locked in that room with those 4 ponies, but now, he was erupting with casualness, almost ignoring the immediate danger. It was a skill he'd never had before, the ability to switch off the seriousness of the situation, and ignore all the parts of life he disliked. Before, he'd still make jokes and have fun, but never as powerfully as he did earlier that day.

While he was locked in that room, discussing horror stories from the Ponynet, he remembered an old broadcast he'd heard, about a slightly mad pony that defeated Space Vikings on a faraway planet. At first, the Doctor couldn't imagine that was him, knowing that he was completely mad, not only slightly. Then, he realized that there was only one pony even slightly mad enough to fight against Space Vikings. And that, of course, was he.

He knocked on Derpy's door, formulating the beginnings of how he'd explain their next adventure to her.

There was no sound on the other side of her door, which worried the Doctor, knowing that he eventually paid for every happy ending he would ever have, and he wasn't keeping track of how many life credited him for in advance.

Then, right before he was about to sonic his way into Derpy's house, she appeared at the door, in what appeared to be her work clothes. The Doctor wasn't sure if he caught her right before or right after her shift, so he was about to ask, but Derpy looked far too happy about his appearance to allow him to.

"Doctor! You got me at the best time! I just finished delivering the mail for today, although there isn't much mail to deliver these days," Derpy said, her tone of voice revealing no intention to even take the time to change out of her work outfit.

"Don't worry, it's only a matter of time until the Ponynet makes delivery one of the biggest things Equestria has ever known, although, I'm not sure if that's a good thing for you personally, or a bad thing," the Doctor said, wondering midway through his statement if he should have told her about the future.

"It'll give me something to do while you're away, at least! So, what's on today's schedule?"

"I was thinking, just maybe, some muffins in space, and afterwards, we can go pay a visit to a faraway planet, maybe with some Space Vikings."

"Space Vikings?"

"Yes, Space Vikings. It sounds exactly like the right amount of cheesy to be just what I needed right now."

"What happened while you were away, Doctor?" Derpy asked, as she reached over to the Doctor's bag of muffins, trying to begin their space muffin fun a bit early.

"Something terrible…Anyway," the Doctor said, not wanting to discuss his journey to Clop, "Wait until we're in the TARDIS before you start devouring the muffins!"

Derpy recoiled from her attack on the muffins, dipping her head low apologetically, and said, "Sorry Doctor…"

"Its okay, Derpy, I understand what you're going through, I mean, these are really amazing muffins."

Derpy knew all about how amazing those muffins were. Although the Doctor didn't know it, she was known as much for her affinity towards muffins as she was for her eye condition, and the combination of which made it appear that she was rather…Well, derpy, actually.

The Doctor and Derpy walked together to the TARDIS, Derpy flying ahead about half of the way, looking forward to the muffins much too much to stay behind. The Doctor had a good feeling about the Space Vikings, a feeling he couldn't shake. His feelings had been wrong before, however.

**Tune in Saturday for the next exciting episode of Whooves, Ragnarok in Space!**


End file.
